Unknown Rye Pier fatality - Melbourne, Australia

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DandyDon

Umbraphile
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Location
One kilometer high on the Texas Central Plains
# of dives
500 - 999
Rye Pier is one of Melbourne's best know and most-loved shore dive sites and is a great day or night dive. It consists of an L-shaped pier roughly 500m in length, under which lives a whole lot of exciting marine life.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner following the death of a man at Rye Pier this morning.

Emergency services were called following reports a scuba diver had been pulled from the water about 10am.

It's understood the man was located unconscious in the water by other scuba divers.

He was pulled onto the pier where they commenced CPR.

Emergency services continued CPR but sadly the man, who is yet to be formally identified, died at the scene.

Police will investigate the exact circumstance around the incident and prepare a report for the coroner.
 
That is truly sad and shocking. Rye Pier is one of my favourite dive sites, often spending well over an hour taking photos of octopus, rays, nudibranchs, sea horses and countless other species. It's a very popular diving, fishing and beach going spot. With such great weather today, there would have been a lot of people there this morning.

High tide was about 9am, so it would have been slackwater (little to no current) and there was hardly any wind. Perfect diving conditions.

Directly under the pier, max depth is about only 5-6m (15-18 feet), with ample headroom between the water surface and the pier structure. It's possible to get deeper if you swim out to a man-made reef, but the deepest dive I have recorded there is 10m.

It's also arguably one of the most suitable dive sites in the area for OW and AOW courses, and will often have dozens of divers gearing up/down or in the water on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

I'm interested to hear any more details. Although if they come, it will most likely be through the local dive community and not through the media. Given the site and the conditions, I would think it likely there may have been a medical event as a contributing factor.
 
That is truly sad and shocking. Rye Pier is one of my favourite dive sites, often spending well over an hour taking photos of octopus, rays, nudibranchs, sea horses and countless other species. It's a very popular diving, fishing and beach going spot. With such great weather today, there would have been a lot of people there this morning.

High tide was about 9am, so it would have been slackwater (little to no current) and there was hardly any wind. Perfect diving conditions.

Directly under the pier, max depth is about only 5-6m (15-18 feet), with ample headroom between the water surface and the pier structure. It's possible to get deeper if you swim out to a man-made reef, but the deepest dive I have recorded there is 10m.

It's also arguably one of the most suitable dive sites in the area for OW and AOW courses, and will often have dozens of divers gearing up/down or in the water on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

I'm interested to hear any more details. Although if they come, it will most likely be through the local dive community and not through the media. Given the site and the conditions, I would think it likely there may have been a medical event as a contributing factor.

Only extra details so far is that he was found by members of a club on their club dive, but was not on the dive or known to the club.

Very sad news.
 
Google has over a dozen articles about this fatality today, but none offer much more information other than the waves were big enough to capsize a small boat nearby, killing one of two fishermen who became tangled in rope under the boat.
 
He was a rebreather diver using (I believe) a Mares Horizon rebreather in a Waterproof drysuit. I have been told he was an experienced diver.

As its too shallow to tox out on oxygen, it was either low O2, CO2 hit or a medical event I would think? All just guesses until the coroner completes his investigation.

A sad outcome from a day out diving, for him, his familty, and the people who found him.
 
As its too shallow to tox out on oxygen
I was in the water and had to help a Malaysian Navy Diver [under training] "tox out" as you call it, [central nervous system oxygen toxicity] in only 6M using a Draeger Mk5, so it is not 'a given' .

Very sad, I feel for his family.
 
Google has over a dozen articles about this fatality today, but none offer much more information other than the waves were big enough to capsize a small boat nearby, killing one of two fishermen who became tangled in rope under the boat.
The overturned boat was at Barwon Heads where a river enters Bass Strait. Rye Pier is at the southern end of Port Phillip Two totally different pieces of water

My apologies for the crap map buy Barwon Heads is below the O in ocean grove, Rye Pier is about where the right hand B110 appears inside Port Philli
 

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Barwon Heads is exposed to the ocean, Bass Straight so can be very rough with big waves under poor conditions.

Rye pier is inside Port Phillip Bay and not exposed directly to the ocean, and usually fairly calm waters.

As stated in the previous post, two different pieces of water, and conditions.
 

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Thank you all for the comments about the location. I am friends with the family, but live in the US and do not know the area. My friend was an experienced diver and loved diving. The family will be meeting with investigators later this week and will hopefully be getting closure.
 
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